The welterweight bout opened the main card of Saturday’s UFC on FUEL TV 8 event at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. It aired on FUEL TV following a preliminary card on Facebook.

Kim did what Kim does best, and he scored frequent takedowns, controlled from the top, and delivered a steady stream of ground and pound during the lopsided three-rounder.

In the first round, Kim scored a takedown, moved to mount, and delivered plenty of punches and elbows (despite an odd warning from referee Herb Dean to get busy). Even when Bahadurzada got to his feet, Kim maintained a body lock and wore him like a backpack before the round ended.

The second round was much of the same. After shaking off a flush head kick, Kim scored a single-leg takedown, briefly took his opponent’s back, moved to mount, and then rained down punches, elbows and double hammerfists through the remainder of the five-minute frame.

By the third round, Bahadurzada clearly was frustrated, but he still couldn’t fend off the takedown. Kim took him down, moved from side mount to full mount, delivered knees to the body, and then threatened with an arm-triangle choke. Unable to cinch it, he instead worked punches to the body, returned to full mount, and delivered heavy punches from the top as Bahadurzada simply looked to survive. Kim even invited Bahadurzada to punch him before raining down another ground-and-pound barrage to put the exclamation point on a dominant victory.

The late theatrics helped spruce up a sometimes-methodical win, which came via unanimous decision with 30-27 scores across the board.

Kim (17-2-1 MMA, 8-2 UFC) moves to 3-1 in his past four fights, though he still hasn’t earned a stoppage win in nearly five years. Bahadurzada (21-5-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC), meanwhile, snaps a seven-fight win streak.

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